1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to the processing of waveform data and, more particularly, to the processing of waveforms associated with medical monitoring.
2. Description of the Related Art
This section is intended to introduce the reader to various aspects of art that may be related to various aspects of the present invention, which are described and/or claimed below. This discussion is believed to be helpful in providing the reader with background information to facilitate a better understanding of the various aspects of the present invention. Accordingly, it should be understood that these statements are to be read in this light, and not as admissions of prior art.
In the field of medicine, doctors often desire to monitor certain physiological characteristics of their patients. Accordingly, a wide variety of devices have been developed for monitoring physiological characteristics. Such devices provide doctors and other healthcare personnel with the information they need to provide the best possible healthcare for their patients. As a result, such monitoring devices have become an indispensable part of modern medicine.
One technique for monitoring certain physiological characteristics of a patient is commonly referred to as pulse oximetry, and the devices built based upon pulse oximetry techniques are commonly referred to as pulse oximeters. Pulse oximetry may be used to measure various blood flow characteristics, such as the blood-oxygen saturation of hemoglobin in arterial blood, the volume of individual blood pulsations supplying the tissue, and/or the rate of blood pulsations corresponding to each heartbeat of a patient.
The quality of these measurements, however, may be adversely affected by a number of factors such as patient motion, subdermal physiological structures, poor sensor operation or fit, poor signal reception and transmission, and so forth. Such factors may result in a pulse oximetry signal which contains artifacts or noise or is otherwise of low or reduced quality. When processed, such a low or reduced quality signal may result in physiological measurements being reported which may not be as accurate or reliable as desired.
To address this issue of poor signal quality, newer pulse oximetry monitors and/or systems may include algorithms, circuits, or other components to reduce, remove, or otherwise compensate for artifacts within the pulse oximetry signal. Such artifact compensation techniques, however, may be unavailable to health care providers using older or less advanced equipment that is not configured for artifact compensation. Since replacing older or less advanced pulse oximetry monitors and/or systems may not be financially feasible, a health care provider may have little choice but to continue using a system or monitor that does not compensate for artifacts in the acquired signal. However, even if an artifact compensating system is available, an older or less advanced system may still be useful within a health care facility. It may, therefore, be useful to provide artifact compensation in conjunction with the use of systems otherwise not configured to compensate for noise and artifacts with the pulse oximetry signal.